VALIANT VETTEL
Sebastian Vettel’s prancing horse galloped to victory in front of an audience packed season opener at the Albert Park circuit. The German’s win end Ferrari’s 28-race win-less spell, making it his first win since 2015, and the 43rd victory of his career. Finishing 9.9 seconds behind the Ferrari was Mercedes Lewis Hamilton in second and Valtteri Bottas in third place.
In a race with only 13 cars crossing the finishing line, there might not have been much overtaking, but such is the nature of the circuit. However a critical talking point and point of relief for the sport and its fans was the outcome on the podium, where it was the first time since 2013 that a Mercedes wasn’t leading the points table. It is also the first time a Ferrari has won at Albert Park since 2010, which is the reason the crowds created a celebration atmosphere that resonated a familiar scene from the Monza circuit in Italy.
With the new cars and their extremely high cornering speeds, most of the drivers seemed cautious at the first turn and corner but there was a melee involving two cars, that of Marcus Ericsson and Kevin Magnussen. At the start pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton jumped into lead followed by Sebastian, and Valterri, but an early pitstop and miscalculated tyre strategy lead by the team, lead to him finishing second. A clear takeaway from the scenario was the return of Mercedes tyre heating woes on softer tyre compounds in warm temperatures. An early pitstop for Lewis meant he did not know how long those tyres were going to last since most of the teams were on a one-stop strategy.
Ferrari’s decision to call Sebastian into the pits at the right time, coupled with a flawless over-cut strategy to rejoin the grid left Lewis struggling behind Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel. At this point Lewis’ teammate Valterri was in lead for a brief period, till he had to pit for a tyre change. From thereon the front order remained similar, with other battles in the middle-field and several retirements. Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth behind the two Mercedes, a relief after the retirement he had last year. The Finn did not challenge the top three and was far from it but clocked the fastest lap of the race, that clocked 1 minute 25.538 seconds while pulling away form Max Verstappen on lap 56 of the race. While Max finished in fifth place, he was followed by William’s Felipe Massa in sixth.
Red Bull Racing team driver and local lad Daniel Ricciardo’s misfortunes carried over from qualifying to the race. The Australian’s car stalled on the installation lap due to a suspected sensor or gearbox failure, which made him re-start the race from the pit-lane and rejoin the grid on the second lap. Daniel’s run was further compromised due to the same problem on lap 29, where his car jammed in sixth gear and came to a halt, making it his first retirement since Belgium GP in 2015.
Force India’s Sergio Perez finished seventh, while his team-mate Esteban Ocon finished tenth rounding up the first double points finish for the pink team. Perez was followed by Toro Rosso drivers Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kyvat who finished eighth and ninth respectively. Nico Hulkenberg was the sole Renault driver to finish the race in eleventh place while his team-mate Jolyon Palmer retired after 15 laps, due to brake problems that compromised his run.
Ferrari third driver, Antonio Giovinazzi who replaced Pascal Wehrlein for the weekend made a stellar debut with a 12th place finish. The GP2 vice-champion’s car was the only Sauber to complete the race, after Marcus Ericsson’s car retired due an engine failure. Giovinazzi was followed by McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne in 13th place, which was the sole McLaren to complete the race.
Stoffel’s team-mate Fernando Alonso was running tenth when a quicker Esteban Ocon overtook the twotime World Champion in an effortless move in a reliable Force India. The Spaniard who was trying to push the limits of the weak McLaren, lost another place later to Hulkenberg when he was seen slowing down and complaining on the radio of a suspected suspension problem.